The Leo Triplet (consisting of M65, M66 and NGC 3628) + Massimo Di Fusco + L-QEF (L-Quad Enhance Filter)

The Leo Triplet (consisting of M65, M66 and NGC 3628) 

Credit: Massimo Di Fusco (Italy)

Filters: Optolong L-QEF (L-Quad Enhance Filter)

 

 

The Leo Triplet (consisting of M65, M66 and NGC 3628), also known as the M66 Group, is a small grouping of interacting galaxies located in the constellation Leo.

M65 (also known as NGC 3623) is a spiral galaxy located about 35 million light years from us, with an apparent magnitude of 10.25. Its spiral arms are crossed by a system of dark dust, in which very bright blue stars are evident in high-resolution images, a sign of ongoing star formation. Its diameter is 70000 light years and its mass is 85 billion solar masses.
Messier 65 was discovered by Charles Messier, but William Herschel mistakenly attributed the discovery to Messier's friend Pierre Méchain in his work “A Cycle of Celestial Objects” and Kenneth Glyn Jones discovered the error in the 1960s. Messier discovered M65 on 1 March 1780.

M66 (also known as NGC 3627) is an intermediate spiral galaxy and the brightest member of the Triplet, with an apparent magnitude of 8.9. The galaxy is about 36 million light years away from us and has a radius of about 50000 light years. M66 is known for its exceptional bands of dark dust and brilliant regions of star formation along its spiral arms.
Gravitational interaction with neighbouring galaxies M65 and NGC 3628 has significantly influenced M66. Its previous encounter with NGC 3628 resulted in an extremely high central mass concentration, asymmetric spiral arms and the removal of a cluster of H I material from one of its spiral arms. As a result, the galaxy appears to have an evident and unusual structure of spiral arms and dust bands. The encounter with NGC 3628, which occurred about a billion years ago, affected both galaxies, slightly displacing the bulge of M66 from the centre and ripping a 300,000 light-year long tidal stream of stars from NGC 3628 (only partly visible in my photo).
Messier discovered M66 on 1 March 1780.

NGC 3628 (also known as the Hamburger Galaxy) is the least luminous member of the Triplet, but the largest, with an apparent magnitude of 10.4. It is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 million light years away from us. Its most striking feature is the wide dark band of dark dust along the outer edge of its spiral arms.
The third member of M66, NGC 3628, was only discovered on 8 April 1784, when William Herschel found it with his telescope, which was considerably larger than the one used by Messier.

 

 

 

Konus 200/1000 @950mm, f/4.8
Player One Poseidon-C camera @-5 °C
Sky-Watcher Eq6r Pro mount
Optolong L-Quad Enhance filter 314x180"
N.I.N.A., APP, PixInsight, PS
Ferrara (Italy)

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